Drake to Host ‘SNL’ in January

To kick off the first Saturday Night Live episode of the new year, Drake will pull a double shift.

On January 18, the Canadian rapper will not only perform something off his latest album, Nothing Was The Same, but will host. Yes, Aubrey Graham is going to put that Degrassi diploma to work.

Drake starred on the Canadian teen soap from 2001 to 2009, but showed off more of his dramatic chops than his comedic timing. His character Jimmy Brooks was confined to a wheelchair after being injured in a school shooting.

Well, when he first appeared on SNL in 2011 as the musical guest, they cast him in a few skits including one where he played a teenager dressed up as a werewolf alongside Jay Pharoah. The two were detailing the new Halloween trend bag jackin,’ which spawned a new rap song, “Bag Jackin’ (Bitches).”

Drake also made a cameo in an SNL short where Andy Samberg interviewed him in a lot of different situations including “An Extremely Close Interview with Drake,” “A Matching Sweaters Interview With Drake” and “A Racist Interview With Drake” where the rapper simply tells Samberg, “Don’t do it.”

In recent appearances on Ellen, where he played coy during a game of Who Has Drake Dated?, and Chelsea Lately, where he talked about his bar mitzvah and his dating past once again, Drake showed that he doesn’t mind poking a little fun at himself.

Closing out the year with a cameo in Anchorman 2, it seems Drake is really trying to make a case to become a rapper/singer/actor/comedian. But we’ll have to wait until 2014 to see if he can really hold his own on live television.